New York Fed's Dudley says US stocks still up sharply

Stocks are still up sharply from a year ago even after the two-day sell-off that roiled markets, according to Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley.

“This wasn’t that big a bump in the equity market,” Dudley said at a question-and-answer session in New York on Wednesday, as Bloomberg reported. “The stock market had a remarkable rise over a very long time with extremely low volatility.”

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The event was one of Dudley’s last before he steps down in the middle of 2018. He is leaving at that time to ensure that a successor is in place well before he reaches the 10-year term limit in January 2019.

“For someone who has always had an interest in public policy and service, leading the New York Fed and being a member of the FOMC has been a dream job,” Dudley said in a November statement, referring to the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee.

While running the New York Fed is Dudley's dream job, an excessive rollback of financial regulation may be his worst nightmare.

Last November, on the day Dudley's plans to step down were announced, he warned in a New York address of elected leaders going too far in rolling back rules that were put in place to safeguard the banking sector after the financial crisis.